CURRIE, JAMES,M.D.
an eminent physician of Liverpool, was born, May 31, 1756, in the parish
of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, Dumfriesshire. His father was the minister of that
parish, but obtained, soon after the birth of his son, the living of
Middlebie. His mother was Jane Boyd, a woman of superior understanding,
but who unfortunately died of consumption shortly after their removal to
Middlebie. Young Currie was the only son in a family of seven children.
Having been at an early age deprived of his mother, his aunt, Miss Duncan,
kindly undertook the management of the family. To the anxious care which
Miss Duncan took of his early education, Currie owed many of those virtues
which adorned his after life. He commenced his education at the parochial
school of Middlebie, and at the age of thirteen was removed to Dumfries,
and placed in the seminary of the learned Dr Chapman, where he remained
for upwards of two years. He was originally intended for the profession of
medicine, but having accompanied his father in a visit to Glasgow, he was
so much delighted with the bustle and commercial activity displayed in
that city, that he obtained his father’s consent to betake himself to a
mercantile life; and accordingly he entered the service of a company of
American merchants. This, as frequently happens, where the wishes of an
inexperienced young man are too readily yielded to, proved a very
unfortunate change. He sailed for Virginia just at the commencement of
those disputes with the American colonies which terminated in their
independence, and the commercial embarrassment and losses which were
occasioned by the consequent interruption of trade have been offered as an
apology for the harsh and ungenerous manner in which Currie was treated by
his employers. To add to his distress, he fell sick of a dangerous
illness, and before he was completely restored to health, he had the
misfortune to lose his father, who left his family in very narrow
circumstances. Young Currie, with that generosity and sanguine disregard
of the difficulties of his situation, which formed so remarkable a feature
in his character, immediately on learning of the death of his father, and
of the scanty provision made for his sisters, divided among them the small
portion which fell to his share. And, disgusted with the hardships he had
encountered in the commencement of his mercantile education, he determined
to renounce the pursuits of commerce. For a time he seems to have turned
his attention to politics; writing several papers on the then
all-engrossing subject of the quarrel between Great Britain and America.
At length, however, he saw the necessity of making choice of some
profession; and, led by the advice of his near relation Dr Currie of
Richmond, New Carolina, with whom he was then living, he determined to
resume his original intention of studying medicine. In pursuance of this
plan, he proceeded to Britain, returning home by the West Indies; being
prevented by the war from taking a more direct route. After encountering
many difficulties, he reached London in 1776, having been absent from his
native country for five years. From London he proceeded to Edinburgh,
where he prosecuted his studies with unremitting assiduity until the year
1780. He early became conspicuous among his fellow-students by his
talents. As a member of the medical society he greatly distinguished
himself, and the papers which he read before that body, not only give
evidence of his superior abilities, but afford an interesting proof that,
even at that early period, he had given his attention to those subjects in
his profession which he afterwards so fully and ably illustrated. Although
the rapid progress he was making in his studies, and the high station he
held among his contemporaries, rendered a continuance at college very
desirable, still he was too deeply impressed with the necessity of
attaining independence and of freeing his sisters and aunt of the burden
of his support, not to make every exertion to push himself into
employment. Accordingly, having procured an introduction to general Sir
William Erskine, he obtained from that officer an ensigncy in his
regiment, with the situation of surgeon’s mate attached to it. He does
not appear, however, to have availed himself of these appointments; for
learning that a medical staff was about to be formed in Jamaica, he
hurried to Glasgow, where he obtained a degree as a physician; his
attendance at college having been insufficient to enable him to graduate
at the university of Edinburgh. Having got his degree, and having
furnished himself with numerous introductions, he proceeded to London, in
the hope of obtaining an appointment in the West India establishment. But,
on reaching the capital, he found that all the appointments were already
filled up. Although disappointed in obtaining an official situation, he
still determined to sail to Jamaica, with the intention of establishing
himself there in private practice; or, failing that, to proceed to
Richmond, and join his kinsman Dr Currie. He was induced, however, by the
persuasion of his friends in London, to abandon this plan, even after his
passage to Jamaica had been taken out. They strongly urged him to
establish himself in one of the large provincial towns of England; for,
from the high estimate which they had formed of his abilities and
professional acquirements, they were convinced that he would speedily
raise himself to eminence in his profession. In accordance with this view,
he proceeded to Liverpool in October, 1780. He was induced to select that
town in consequence of a vacancy having occurred there by the removal of
Dr Dobson to Bath. But, even without such an opening, it is evident, that
to a young physician of talent and enterprise, a wealthy and rapidly
increasing commercial town like Liverpool holds out peculiar advantages,
and great facilities for getting into practice, where the continual
fluctuation of society presents an open field for professional abilities,
widely different from that of more stationary communities. Hence, as had
been anticipated, Dr Currie’s talents and gentlemanly manners brought
him rapidly into practice; although on his first arrival he was an utter
stranger in Liverpool, and only found access to society there, by the
introductions he brought with him. His success was early confirmed by
being elected one of the physicians to the Infirmary, and strengthened by
his marriage in the year 1783, to Miss Lucy Wallace, the daughter of a
respectable merchant of Liverpool.

Although busily engaged in
the arduous duties of his profession, Dr Currie yet found time to
cultivate literature. A similarity of tastes having led to an intimacy
with the well known Mr Roscoe, Dr Currie and Mr Roscoe, along with Mr
William Rathbone, formed a Literary Club, which deserves to be remembered
as being the first of those numerous literary institutions by which
Liverpool is now so creditably distinguished.

The pulmonary affection
under which Dr Currie began to suffer about this time, has been ascribed
to the fatigue and the night journeys to which he was exposed in his
attendance on the sick bed of his friend, Dr Bell of Manchester. His first
attack was so violent as completely to incapacitate him for business; and
finding no mitigation of the paroxysms of the hectic fever, except in
travelling, he undertook a journey to Bristol; but unfortunately the good
effects which the change might otherwise have produced, were neutralized
by the distressing circumstance of his arriving just in time to witness
the death of his sister; the second who had, within the year, fallen a
victim to the same disease under which he was himself labouring. Deriving
no benefit from his residence in Bristol, he removed to Matlock, in the
hope that the drier air and the hot baths of that inland town, would prove
more beneficial. Disappointed in this expectation, he resolved to try the
effect of his native air; and in the hope of again seeing a third sister
who was sinking under the disease so fatal to his family, he made a
hurried journey to Scotland. As regarded his health, his expectations were
wonderfully gratified; for when he reached Dumfriesshire he was so much
recruited, that he was able to ride on horseback for an hour at a time;
but he was too late to see his sister, who was conveyed to the grave on
the very day of his arrival. Notwithstanding this distressing event, his
native air and exercise on horseback, proved so beneficial, that, after
remaining a few weeks at Moffat, he returned to Liverpool on horseback,
varying his journey by visiting the lakes of Cumberland. In this journey
he was able to ride forty miles on the day on which he reached Liverpool.
A very interesting account of Dr Currie’s illness and recovery will be
found in the second volume of Darwin’s Zoonomia.

The first work which, after
his recovery, Dr Currie undertook, was a translation of his friend Dr Bell’s
inaugural dissertation. This he did at the request of the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Manchester, and it was published in the Society’s
transactions. The translation was accompanied by several valuable notes,
and a short biographical sketch of the author; in which Dr Currie appears
to have given a very correct and impartial delineation of his friend’s
character. The elegance of the style and execution of this work gained for
Dr Currie very considerable reputation as an author.

On being elected member of
the Medical Society of London, he communicated an essay, (published in the
Society’s transactions,) on "Tetanus and Convulsive
Disorders." In the year following, he presented to the Royal Society,
a paper giving "An account of the remarkable effect of shipwreck on
mariners, with experiments and observations on the influence of immersion
in fresh and salt water, hot and cold, on the powers of the body,"
which appeared in the Philosophical Transaction of that year, and which
may be regarded as introductory to a more mature production, which
appeared in 1792, under the title of "Medical reports on the effects
of water, cold and warm, as a remedy for fever and other diseases, whether
applied to the surface of the body or used internally;" a work on
which Dr Currie’s fame as a medical author principally rests.
Immediately on its publication, it attracted the attention, not only of
the profession, but of the public in general. But the practice which it
recommended not having been found uniformly successful, and being
repugnant to the preconceived notions on the subject, it fell gradually
into disrepute. Still, however, cold ablutions in fever is unquestionably
a remedy of great power, and has been found very salutary when used with
judgment, particularly in the violent fevers of tropical climates. That
the practice has hitherto been less successful than it should be, arises
from its having been often resorted to by the patients themselves, and
from its being prescribed by the ignorant, too late in the hot stage of
the fever. The profession, therefore, is deeply indebted to Dr Currie for
the introduction of this practice; which, in skilful hands, has proved
most efficacious, and has been the means of saving many lives.

Dr Currie, on several
occasions, indulged himself in writing on political topics; but by some
remarkable fatality, although by no means a consistent adherent to one
side, he invariably took the unpopular side of the question. While in
America, he had defended the mother country against the colonies. He
afterwards joined in the no popery enthusiasm, during the
disgraceful riots raised by lord George Gordon, bringing himself into
disrepute by the ill chosen time he took to indulge in a cry which was
otherwise popular with the best classes of society. And the principles
which he advocated in his "Letter, commercial and political,
addressed to the Right Hon. William Pitt," under the assumed name of
Jasper Wilson, raised him a host of enemies, by whom he was attacked in
the most violent and scurrilous manner.

While on an excursion to
Dumfriesshire, on account of his health, Dr Currie made the acquaintance
of Robert Burns the Scottish poet; and, like all who had the good fortune
to meet that extraordinary man, he became one of his enthusiastic
admirers. On the death of Burns, when the friends of the poet were
exerting themselves to raise his family from the state of abject poverty
in which it had been left, they strongly urged Dr Currie to become his
editor and biographer, to which he at length consented; and, in the year
1800, he published for the behoof of the poet’s familly, "The Works
of Robert Burns, with an account of his life, and criticisms on his
writings; to which are prefixed, some observations on the character and
condition of the Scottish peasantry." It is by this work that Dr
Currie has established his fame in the republic of letters. He has, at the
same time, by the manner in which he has accomplished his task, conferred
a lasting favour on all who can appreciate the language and beauties of
our national poet.

Although Dr Currie had been
restored to comparative good health after his first attack of illness in
1781, still from that period he continued to be subject to pulmonary
threatenings; but it was not until the year 1804, that his constitution
gave way, so as to force him to retire from his professional duties in
Liverpool. In the hope that his native air might again restore him to
health, he made a journey to Scotland; but deriving no benefit from the
change, he returned to England, and spent the ensuing winter alternately
at Clifton and Bath. For a time his health seemed to recruit, and he was
even enabled to resume his professional avocations in the latter city; but
on his complaints returning with increased violence, he, with that
restlessness incident to consumption, removed to Sidmouth, where he died,
31st August, 1805, in the 50th year of his age.

Dr Currie was of a kind and
affection disposition; and he was active and judicious in his benevolence.
To his strenuous exertions Liverpool owes many of the charitable and
literary institutions of which it can now boast.

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